Spiral Goddess Collective Care Agreement
We welcome all members of our community to participate in our programs as long as they respect our guiding principles, which include respect for ourselves, our space, and our community.
Anyone new to The SGC—your first class is free (from our weekly class offerings). No one will be turned away based upon their inability to pay; however, the SGC does have rent to pay so please pay what you can to help keep the doors open and to help us serve as many community members as possible. We also offer scholarships for free classes and workshops as well as sponsor-based memberships that help to fund the Spiral Goddess Collective Care Fund (SGCCF) scholarship.
Do what feels good to your mind/body in each moments and be respectful of other people's space and experience and what we each bring into this collective space.
Practice letting go of competition—with yourself and with others. Please don't hurt yourself doing something just because the teacher/guide or other participants are doing it. You know your body and your abilities, when you can push and when you need to pull back.
This is a "brave space." Everything we do is an invitation to engage or to choose a different option. We make our own decisions—how we move, how we breathe. When is the floor the best place to be and when is standing or sitting a better option? Do we want to move or find stillness? The teacher/guide/curator gives us a container for our experience—suggestions, options, variations—from here, we each create our own experience. Sometimes we have to ask for what we need.
Understand that we each approach every moment, every element, every movement, from our own experiences. No way is right. No way is wrong. We are diverse, complicated, unique beings who co-create our inclusive space and our individual and collective experience.
Healing is not easy. It is not a linear process, and it looks different for each of us.
Be easy on yourself and others. In this space we let go of judgment, of ourselves and of other people. Sometimes we are our harshest critics. At The SGC we give ourselves permission to shed the negative self-talk, to be easy on ourselves and have self-compassion. Our space lacks mirrors, so we focus on our internal experience rather than what we look like at any given moment.
We offer practices because we are always growing and evolving. We are not striving for perfection; we are embracing process and exploration. What we practice here resonates out into the world. In this space, we counter the trauma, injustice, and power-over practices of the world by engaging our minds/bodies, empowering ourselves to make the best decisions for ourselves in each moment, and connecting with other people through authentic movement.
Anyone new to The SGC—your first class is free (from our weekly class offerings). No one will be turned away based upon their inability to pay; however, the SGC does have rent to pay so please pay what you can to help keep the doors open and to help us serve as many community members as possible. We also offer scholarships for free classes and workshops as well as sponsor-based memberships that help to fund the Spiral Goddess Collective Care Fund (SGCCF) scholarship.
Do what feels good to your mind/body in each moments and be respectful of other people's space and experience and what we each bring into this collective space.
Practice letting go of competition—with yourself and with others. Please don't hurt yourself doing something just because the teacher/guide or other participants are doing it. You know your body and your abilities, when you can push and when you need to pull back.
This is a "brave space." Everything we do is an invitation to engage or to choose a different option. We make our own decisions—how we move, how we breathe. When is the floor the best place to be and when is standing or sitting a better option? Do we want to move or find stillness? The teacher/guide/curator gives us a container for our experience—suggestions, options, variations—from here, we each create our own experience. Sometimes we have to ask for what we need.
Understand that we each approach every moment, every element, every movement, from our own experiences. No way is right. No way is wrong. We are diverse, complicated, unique beings who co-create our inclusive space and our individual and collective experience.
Healing is not easy. It is not a linear process, and it looks different for each of us.
Be easy on yourself and others. In this space we let go of judgment, of ourselves and of other people. Sometimes we are our harshest critics. At The SGC we give ourselves permission to shed the negative self-talk, to be easy on ourselves and have self-compassion. Our space lacks mirrors, so we focus on our internal experience rather than what we look like at any given moment.
We offer practices because we are always growing and evolving. We are not striving for perfection; we are embracing process and exploration. What we practice here resonates out into the world. In this space, we counter the trauma, injustice, and power-over practices of the world by engaging our minds/bodies, empowering ourselves to make the best decisions for ourselves in each moment, and connecting with other people through authentic movement.
Indigenous Land and Traditions Acknowledgement
Land acknowledgements have begun to be standard practice for many institutions and organizations, as well as for yoga teachers and studios. These statements aren't just an act of bending to the political climate—they are a recognition that the power-over practices of the past continue to reverberate into the present day, impacting the physical, mental, social, cultural, and economic wellness of individuals, communities, and our nation and keeping inequalities firmly in place.
Toward the larger goals of social justice, it is important to recognize that where we are and what we do does not exits in a vacuum. Both the land and the traditions of indigenous peoples influence and support the work we do at The Spiral Goddess Collective as well as the work that all of us who participate in conscious dance and yoga, specifically, and modern life, generally, participate in and benefit from. What does this mean? Part of our work is not just to acknowledge our debt to indigenous people's and traditions, but also to continue to educate ourselves, to honor these roots, and to participate in and support indigenous movements toward, individual, cultural, and collective healing and self-determination. This work is ongoing but it is only a beginning.
Downtown Bangor and The Clark Building, and thus The Spiral Goddess Collective, a Center for Mind/Body Movement, exist on the unceded homelands of the sovereign people of the Wabanaki Confederacy: the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi'kmaq people. The Kenduskeag Stream, a tributary or the Penobscot River, dominates the view from the windows at the front of the SGC center. The Penobscot River continues to be contested territory in the centuries-long struggle for stewardship toward ensuring a healthy ecosystem for all of Maine.
Also framed from this view is the monument to Charles O. Howard, the victim of a hate crime in 1984. While walking down the street, Howard and his boyfriend were harassed for being gay and then Howard was assaulted and thrown over the bridge into the Kenduskeag Stream where he died by drowning. This, too, is a legacy of our land.
Bangor, and the State of Maine, are microcosms for the United States where movements for social justice have been ebbing and flowing since before the U.S. officially became a country. As a part of the legacies of racism, sexism, white supremacy, and imperialism we honor the land where we live, love, breathe, work, and find community. We acknowledge that here in the U.S. what we have was built on stolen land and by forced labor. We pay back this debt by keeping our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts open and settling for nothing less than justice, equity, peace, and love.
Finally, yoga's roots are thousands of years old and part of a larger set of traditions from indigenous practices from India, Africa, and other regions in the world--there is nothing new about embodied practices, but many have been lost, forgotten, or forced out of our cultural norms. The yoga practiced and taught at Spiral Studio draw on a variety of traditions, mixing styles and approaches that blend breathing, embodied movement, and meditation. Sarah writes more about these practices and approaches in her blog and in her book, American Yoga Demystified: Embodied Movement for Individual and Collective Transformation.
Toward the larger goals of social justice, it is important to recognize that where we are and what we do does not exits in a vacuum. Both the land and the traditions of indigenous peoples influence and support the work we do at The Spiral Goddess Collective as well as the work that all of us who participate in conscious dance and yoga, specifically, and modern life, generally, participate in and benefit from. What does this mean? Part of our work is not just to acknowledge our debt to indigenous people's and traditions, but also to continue to educate ourselves, to honor these roots, and to participate in and support indigenous movements toward, individual, cultural, and collective healing and self-determination. This work is ongoing but it is only a beginning.
Downtown Bangor and The Clark Building, and thus The Spiral Goddess Collective, a Center for Mind/Body Movement, exist on the unceded homelands of the sovereign people of the Wabanaki Confederacy: the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi'kmaq people. The Kenduskeag Stream, a tributary or the Penobscot River, dominates the view from the windows at the front of the SGC center. The Penobscot River continues to be contested territory in the centuries-long struggle for stewardship toward ensuring a healthy ecosystem for all of Maine.
Also framed from this view is the monument to Charles O. Howard, the victim of a hate crime in 1984. While walking down the street, Howard and his boyfriend were harassed for being gay and then Howard was assaulted and thrown over the bridge into the Kenduskeag Stream where he died by drowning. This, too, is a legacy of our land.
Bangor, and the State of Maine, are microcosms for the United States where movements for social justice have been ebbing and flowing since before the U.S. officially became a country. As a part of the legacies of racism, sexism, white supremacy, and imperialism we honor the land where we live, love, breathe, work, and find community. We acknowledge that here in the U.S. what we have was built on stolen land and by forced labor. We pay back this debt by keeping our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts open and settling for nothing less than justice, equity, peace, and love.
Finally, yoga's roots are thousands of years old and part of a larger set of traditions from indigenous practices from India, Africa, and other regions in the world--there is nothing new about embodied practices, but many have been lost, forgotten, or forced out of our cultural norms. The yoga practiced and taught at Spiral Studio draw on a variety of traditions, mixing styles and approaches that blend breathing, embodied movement, and meditation. Sarah writes more about these practices and approaches in her blog and in her book, American Yoga Demystified: Embodied Movement for Individual and Collective Transformation.
